Gerald Ensley: We're looking prosperous

Rich Oppel was in town last week. He was the Democrat's executive editor in 1977-1978. Though his wife, Carol, is a native of Tallahassee, they haven't visited much since they left town 35 years ago.

So the natural question was: What do you think of Tallahassee today? Oppel said: "It looks prosperous."

Generally, you ask that question of people who have been away for a while and you get comments simply on the size: "It's much bigger," "There's a lot more traffic" and "I almost didn't recognize the place."

But prosperous is interesting. It wouldn't have been the first word I thought of to describe Tallahassee. But upon reflection, it fits.

As we reported last week, the Leon County unemployment rate has dropped to 4.8 percent, which is its lowest since before the recession. So yes, people are working.

But prosperity is about more than jobs and money. It's about energy and vitality and activity. And we have those in spades these days.

There is new construction all over Tallahassee. Big apartment complexes are going up on Tennessee Street, College Avenue, Gaines, Madison and Pensacola streets. The new four-story Gateway Project is about to open at the city's busiest intersection, Monroe and Tennessee. Gaines Street has had a major facelift; Midtown keeps adding new businesses. The FAMU Way extension is under way. Tennessee and Calhoun streets are being resurfaced. SouthWood and Thomasville Road continue to boom.

Florida State University is throbbing with activity — and about to explode. Thanks to its pre-eminent status, FSU will add 500 new faculty members, who are going to propel more residential and retail construction.

The glass-steel-light artwork planned for the new roundabout on Gaines Street is a reminder of how public art is proliferating in Tallahassee. More than 170 sculptures, statues, murals, paintings, etc., adorn Tallahassee. Public art is a reflection of a city's energy and prosperity.

Does anything speak louder about our vitality than Cascades Park? People attending concerts, pedestrians flowing day and night, children romping in the fountains. Two months after opening, it's a popular hub of activity.

Almost unnoticed to those of us who live here, Tallahassee has become an energetic, thriving city.

The signs of prosperity must strike a person who's been away 35 years, because that wasn't the old Tallahassee. Despite being home to the state capital and two universities, Tallahassee traditionally had a languid, unambitious feel. It was a quiet Southern town except for legislative sessions and college football games. It was a fine place to live. But it didn't bustle.

When Oppel lived here, Tallahassee had only a handful of good restaurants, a couple of shopping malls, three or four movie theaters and some small parks. There was no Civic Center, no biking trails, no rock climbing gyms, nothing the scale of Cascades Park. People complained all the time, "There's nothing to do in Tallahassee."

Not, it should be noted, that Tallahassee was terribly "unprosperous."

Thanks to being the state capital, Tallahassee sailed through the Great Depression with far less pain than many cities. The federal government financed tons of new construction, much of which is still around (Tallahassee Senior Center, Leon High, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, the Firestone Building).

Thanks to state government and the universities, our employment has always been stable. Even at the worst of the recent Great Recession, when unemployment statewide in Florida climbed over 10 percent, Leon County barely inched above 7-percent unemployment.

Tallahassee may not have bustled in the past, but it didn't suffer as badly as other places.

Still, there was always the desire for more.

Milton Smith was the owner and editor of the Tallahassee Democrat from 1908 to 1929. Smith used his pulpit to constantly push for growth. One of his most outlandish ideas was to dig a canal from Wakulla Springs to Tallahassee, thus connecting to the Wakulla River and the coast, making Tallahassee a port city. It was Smith who invented an annual "Clean Up Day," to make Tallahassee more presentable for business ventures.

Legendary editor Malcolm Johnson pounded the same drum in the 1960s and 1970s. Malcolm wanted to route I-10 down Gaines Street to draw more business downtown. It was Malcolm who conceived of Innovation Park, convinced it would attract new technology commerce.

The dreams of Smith and Johnson are now coming to fruition. It's not entirely clear why.

We still don't have any major manufacturers. Our biggest industry, after government and education, is health care. Air service is still problematic.

Maybe we've reached critical mass for population. In 1980, shortly after Oppel left, the Leon County population was 148,600; today, we have more than 283,000 residents. In 1980, our colleges had fewer than 40,000 students total; now FSU, FAMU and TCC serve more than 65,000 students.

Maybe the recession created an urgency. No business sits still anymore. Chain restaurants, retail stores and apartment developers all look for new locations. Existing businesses look for ways to expand.

Whatever the reason, the signs of bustle are everywhere. We are, indeed, prosperous.